Monday 28 June 2010

Student Showcase 4

Janice's Quilt.
Janice was another beginner - another addict now!

Kath's Quilt.

Kath is an experienced quilter and also helped me greatly when I started quilting. She is a very precise quilter so I was not sure if she would like the liberated blocks but she has really enjoyed making them and has produced this lovely quilt for one of her great-neices.

Ann's Quilt.

Ann is really pleased to have completed this quilt for her grandaughter. She had started patchwork a few years ago but never really took to it. Some of the blocks on her quilt are from previous classes.

Chris's Quilt.

Chris has done lots of sewing in the past but I think this is her first quilt which she will be using as a wallhanging. She has used an automatic machine stitch to quilt the borders which has produced a lovely detail.

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Student Showcase 3.

Pat's Quilt.
Pat had started P&Q a few years ago but had never really got to grips with it. She is really pleased to have completed this small quilt which she will be using as a wallhanging. She also has made more blocks to make a bed quilt for the same room.

Carol's Quilt.

Although Carol has done lots of sewing and crafts in the past I think this is her first quilt.

It has been made as a sofa quilt for her lounge. Beautiful choice of colours!

Liz's Quilt.

Liz was another beginner and is very pleased with her first quilt. It is hanging in her bedroom so that she can admire it every day.

Anne's Table Runner.

Anne is an experienced patchworker who helped me a lot when I was a beginner myself. Even so she has enjoyed making the liberated blocks and has put together this lovely scrappy runner.

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Student Showcase 2

Angela's Quilt.
Angela was another complete beginner who has produced the most beautiful quilt. She is another addict who has even bought herself a sewing machine during the course!

Judith's Quilt. Judith, another complete beginner, hand quilted this little quilt while on her holidays. She has done a lovely job with it and I love the use of the scraps in the borders.

This quilt will be a gift for her sister's cat - good job I am a cat lover!

Joan's placemats. Although Joan has done loads of sewing in the past she really enjoyed making her blocks into these lovely placemats.


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Showcase of my students work 1

All around the country students are exhibiting their work at the end of the academic year. Next Tuesday is the end of term for my P&Q classes and I have decided to do an online exhibition of their work.
The progress that has been made by the students is astounding and I am so proud of them all. Also many beginners have become addicted so I have acheived my original goal of sharing my enjoyment of P&Q.
And the breaking news is that I should be able to continue these classes in September.

Jo's Quilt. Jo used a 'Hungry Caterpillar' panel and the blocks from our class to make this stunning quilt for her daughter. Jo had never done any quilting before joining the class.


This is Maureen's Christmas table runner and a cushion she made to use up her scraps. Although Maureen had used a sewing machine a lot in the past she was new to P&Q.


Daphne's Quilt. Daphne was also a beginner before the class and is now hooked!

She has made this beautiful quilt for her guest room.

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Sunday 27 June 2010

The end of one era and the beginning of another.







This week Jonathan, my eldest son completed his BTEC National Diploma in Art & Design.
These photos were taken at his end of year show and give you an idea of his style of work .
His area of interest is Graphic Design and in September he is moving to Leeds Metropolitan University to study for a BA in Graphic Design. Geoff and I are very proud of what he has acheived so far and are sure that he has the drive and motivation to continue to be successful in his studies.





If only this slogan reflected some of the teenage / parent disagreements we have had over the last few years!
But it is something that I think I should heed in some areas of my life.








Robert, my youngest son has just completed his GCSE exams and will be studying Media at the local college in September.
So its the end of an era and in the words of Alice Cooper 'School's Out Forever!'

Friday 25 June 2010

A Visit to the Farne Islands

We have spent the last few days in Northumberland with my parents and yesterday we visited the Farne Islands which are a paradise for bird watchers.
Although the weather was cloudy it was very warm - here is a photo of me with my parents, waiting for the boat to collect us.





One of the main attractions of the islands are the puffins which live in burrows, often those abandoned by rabbits.


Here are a selection of seabirds on the rocks - the noise and the smell are quite intense!


By far the best bit was seeing the Arctic Tern chicks which are seriously cute! However their parents protect them fiercely and we were all dive bombed and often pecked during our visit.
But the attacks were worth it to see these little creatures.

Here are two chicks with Mum, one of them is hiding in Mum's feathers.

And here is a classic puffin photo to finish.






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Sunday 13 June 2010

Blocks from Week 6.

In Week 6 we started with Liberated Log Cabin. I used a square made from bonus triangles as my centre and then just used up strips from my leftovers which is why they vary so much in size. I tried to encourage the students to do the same.

Then we did a liberated version of Courthouse Steps. I used a little orphan block for the centre, using up my cut strips as before. I had loads of striped strips cut so I used them to make a border. I even pieced the bottom border as I did not want to cut any more fabric, I wanted to use the pieces I already had cut.

Finally I encouraged my students to try crumb piecing which is just using your leftovers to piece in a random fashion. I had a lot of strips cut so thats why there are quite a few with a striped effect. I like to keep my crumb blocks quite small so I joined them all with borders.
Here is a layout for a quilt top from some of the sample blocks I made. I am going to sash it in the black fabric. The bright pink border stands out too much so I am going to replace that.
Our 6 weeks of piecing were now over and the students moved on to adding sashings, backings and quilting their pieces. In the next post I will show some of their finished quilts - prepare to be impressed!
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Wednesday 9 June 2010

Blocks from Weeks 4 and 5.

Good progress is being made by my students in the Tuesday classes. Soon I will be sharing finished quilts. Some total beginners have produced beautiful quilts to a very high standard and I am very proud of them all.

Week 4 was one of my favourite blocks - Liberated Stars. The points of the stars are free pieced so that you never get two stars the same. I particularly like it when the stars are all made using the same background fabric so that the stars appear to be 'floating' on the quilt.


Week 5 was Flying Geese - such an important block in many quilts so I decided I needed to include it but decided that we would make the folded version which is only made from rectangles and squares.




Even this last one was quite easy to make using folded flying geese units.
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Monday 7 June 2010

Students Liberated Square in a Square Blocks.




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Week 3 Blocks.

I am seriously behind with my posting on these - so need to start catching up!
On week 3 we did a foundation pieced heart which would also lend itself to free piecing of course! Some of my less experienced students found this block a bit confusing so I need to revisit this block in a future class.



The rest of the class was spent working on liberated square in a square blocks which are quick and easy to do with no worrying about matching corners. These blocks were a real hit - everyone seemed to enjoy them! The only problem with them is that the edges of the finished block are on the bias so you need to be careful when joining to another block or adding sashings.

I also made some 6 inch blocks but did not like these as much.
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